Marshall Pinchiey Wilder. 71 



Col. Wilder has delivered addresses before it in the cities of New York, 

 Philadelphia, Boston, and Rochester ; as well as a eulogy on his lamented 

 friend, Mr. Andrew J. Downing. When it is considered that these ad- 

 dresses, and many others before various societies and on numerous festive 

 occasions, were written and delivered by a person with little more than a 

 common-school education ; that they were prepared in intervals snatched 

 from the grasp of his mercantile profession, in connection with the profes- 

 sion of a horticulturist, — the industry, tact, learning, and genius of the 

 orator appear quite remarkable. 



We have space for but two or three brief extracts from Col. Wilder's 

 addresses. In an address before the American Pomological Society,* he 

 said, — 



" Our trees — from the opening bud to the golden harvest ; from the 

 laying-off of their gay autumnal livery, and during their rest in winter's 

 shroud, waiting a resurrection to a new and superior life — are all 

 eloquent preachers, proclaiming to our inmost soul, 



' The Hand that made us is divine.' 



Taught by their counsels, who does not admire the wisdom, perfection, 

 and beauty of this fair creation.' — the tiny bud, incased in coats of mail 

 so that the rude blasts may not visit it too roughly, rivalling in its mechan- 

 ism the human eye, and destined to perpetuate its own species distinctive 

 as the soul of man; the enamelled blossom, unfolding her virgin bosom to 

 the warm embrace of vernal air, bespangling the orchard with starry spray, 

 scarcely less beautiful than the glittering host of night, dancing in rainbow 

 hues, and flinging on the breeze a fragrance richer than the spices of 

 Ceylon's isles, — sweet harbinger of bountiful harvest; the luscious fruits, 

 God's best gift to man, save woman, — the melting pear, rough or polished 

 rind, with sweetest, honeyed flavor; the burnished apple, tempting human 

 taste, from the mother of our race to her last fair daughter; the royal 

 grape, clustering beneath its bower of green, making glad the heart of 

 man; the brilliant cherry, suffused with loveliest tints of rose and white, 

 or dyed in deepest incarnadine; the velvet /^a<r//, mantled with beauty's 

 softest blush, and vying with the oriency of the morning; the delicious 



* See Address for 1858, p. 24. 



